Brick, stone and concrete structures are used extensively in the construction or building of residential, industrial, commercial, agricultural and other applications. Indeed, many structures are built from wood, brick, stone, concrete or a combination of these materials or similar materials because of their many advantages including strength, durability, temperature and sound insulation, fire resistance, general attractiveness and ease of maintenance.
Gravity forces acting on the facing material of a given structure can be transferred to major structural elements of the building, for example, beams, columns, concrete floor slabs or the like using steel rods and shapes attached with mechanical and/or welded connections to the structural elements. As is well known, it is necessary and required by some building codes when building a brick or a stone structure to provide support therefor in some instances. For examples, it is necessary and required by some building codes to provide support for such facing materials over openings in the building structure and when the facing material stands over a given height such as over more than one floor level.
The support for the facing material is typically provided by so-called lintels. Such conventional lintels are typically in the form of a substantially, horizontally disposed architectural member that is employed to span an opening in a building such as a window or a door or across a given width of a facing for carrying the load created by the facing. The lintels used in modern buildings of cement blocks, bricks, types of masonry construction have traditionally been fabricated of elongated heavy gauge angle iron. Lintels are generally made of steel or concrete because these materials are durable and inexpensive. The lintel is typically nailed, bolted or otherwise secured to the header forming the top of the opening or to a concrete floor slab. It may additionally be simply supported at each end by the brick or concrete just below the header outside the opening. One or more courses of brick are then placed on the lintel and are secured thereto typically using mortar. The lintel supports the weight of all the bricks or stones thereabove.
Structural lintels refer to the lintels that are typically used for supporting bricks, stones or the like used as facing material spanning from one floor level to the next. Typically, such structural lintels are secured to corresponding beams or slabs of concrete or the like used as flooring material by bearing having corresponding studs embedded within the concrete slab or beam.
The conventional method of securing a structural lintel to a concrete floor involves initially nailing or otherwise securing the bearing plate to the form used for moulding the concrete slab or beam. The bearing plate with its corresponding anchoring stud hence typically extends into the mould of the concrete slab or beam.
The concrete or similar material is then poured into the form and allowed to cure. Once the concrete has sufficiently cured, the forms forming the mould are removed leaving the bearing plate anchored to the now-cured concrete beam or slab with their corresponding studs embedded in the cured concrete.
This part of the job is typically performed by concrete/form workers part of conventional construction teams.
Once the forms are removed from the cured concrete slab or beam, another group of workers, typically referred to as steel workers such as structural steel installers must gain access to the location in order to perform the next building steps. The steel installers must then secure lintel spacers and the structural lintels themselves to the bearing plate.
Typically, the steel installers initially weld spacing tubes on the exterior surface of the bearing plates prior to welding the structural lintels to their corresponding spacing tubes. Alternatively, the spacing tubes and structural lintels are pre-assembled in an outside location such as an assembly shop or the like and brought in an assembled configuration to the construction site where they are welded as a single unit to the bearing plate.
Regardless of whether the spacing tubes and bearing plates are welded sequentially or as a pre-assembled unit to the bearing plate, the welding of the spacing tubes to the bearing plates is typically considered to be a tedious, time-consuming, costly and potentially hazardous process. One of the reasons why the mounting of the structural lintels and their associated spacing tubes is considered physical relates to the fact that the outer surface of the bearing plates on which the spacing tubes are to be welded often needs to be prepared or modified prior to the welding of the spacing tubes on the bearing plates. Indeed, when the moulding forms are removed from the cured or hardened concrete, the outer surface of the concrete in contact with the forms often does not present a perfectly aligned and smooth surface. Variables such as the positioning of the moulding forms, the type of structure or anchor used for maintaining the forms aligned during pouring and curing of the concrete, the type of concrete used, the conditions during curing of the concrete and other variables cooperate in varying degrees to imperfections to the outer surface of the concrete slab or beam and in the relative positioning of the outer surface of the bearing plate relative to the adjacent outer surface of the concrete beam or slab.
For example, the bearing plates may be slightly misaligned or out of register with the outer surface of the concrete slab or beam so that at least a portion of the outer surface of the bearing plates often is either embedded too deeply relative to the outer surface of the concrete slab or beam, or sticks out too far therefrom. Sometimes, the imperfections in the outer surface of the concrete slab or beam are such that such imperfections in themselves cause interference to the welding of the spacing tubes to the outer surface of the bearing plate.
Regardless of the reason, on site modifications often need to be performed on either the concrete slab or beam or the bearing plates prior to welding of the spacing tubes to the outer surface of the bearing plates. For example, the bearing plates may need to be cut using a torch or additional levelling components may need to be welded or otherwise secured to the bearing plates. Such on-site modifications require that specialized and skilled workmen spend a considerable amount of time. The delays caused by the need for a correction of imperfections in the alignment of the outer surface of the bearing plates relative to the outer surface of the concrete slab or beam sometimes slow down other steps in the overall construction of a building. Also, the required on-site modifications are sometimes of the type that may be potentially hazardous such as in situations wherein a torch is required for cutting through a portion of a bearing plate or the like.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an improved method and device for building a concrete floor and anchoring structural lintels thereto.